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It took Scot Rees just below 11 hours to swim 30.5 kilometres throughout B.C.’s Georgia Strait, and he raised greater than $140,000 for charity whereas doing it.

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Rees, 39, has a situation known as retinitis pigmentosa, a uncommon eye illness that impacts the retina and may result in imaginative and prescient loss. Legally blind, Rees accomplished the swim to lift cash for folks in want of information canines.

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He was compelled to postpone the try by a day attributable to sturdy wind and wave forecasts however accomplished the swim earlier this week. He departed from Davis Bay in Sechelt, B.C., earlier than arriving at Pipers Lagoon close to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

On social media, he wrote that he bought off to a powerful begin earlier than battling sturdy currents on the 16 to 22-kilometre mark and endured “sore shoulders, fatigue and a really salty mouth for the final half.”

He mentioned his personal information canine, Kaleb, a 34-kilogram yellow lab, additionally offered inspiration for the try.

Rees was elevating consciousness for Canadian Information Canine for the Blind, a nationwide registered charity based in 1984, “to offer again in my very own small technique to a charity that has made a really optimistic affect in my life.”

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The Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea and varies in width from 20 to 58 kilometres throughout its 240-kilometre size. The stretch of sea is dwelling to seals, porpoises, orcas, sea lions and different wildlife.

Whereas he can nonetheless see some mild, Rees writes that he has misplaced all useful sight during the last 15 years, necessitating “a major transition in my mindset, profession, and private pursuits.”

Rees instructed CBC that Kaleb “restored quite a lot of my unbiased mobility that I had misplaced.”

Rees wasn’t alone in his try, as four-time Paralympic swimmer Donovan Tildesley, who can be blind, swam alongside him for the primary hour earlier than following alongside by boat. Rees was additionally joined by his pal Joost Van Woerden, who paddled alongside in a kayak, and was aided by a water-proof headset in his swimming cap that allowed him to listen to instructions.

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On a fundraising web page for the occasion, Rees writes that he competed recurrently in short-distance swim racing as a baby earlier than shifting to longer open-water endurance swims, just like the Vancouver Bay Problem, a 9.6-kilometre swim throughout English Bay.

Rees writes that Kaleb, his information canine since 2021, has introduced him “life-changing advantages,” permitting him to navigate Vancouver’s busy streets, commute to work, go for lunch and head to the pool to coach.

“(Kaleb) is an integral a part of my household, bringing pleasure to me, my spouse, Alexandra, our two younger youngsters, and everybody he meets,” he writes.

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